Kindness

I have seen the goodness of people in my life the last few weeks.  As our family has been in the process of moving our parents to assisted living, everywhere I have turned for help I have been treated with kindness and compassion.  It has been an overwhelming task in many respects, but with the help of family, and others who have given their time and expertise it has been achievable.   We are very lucky in many respects and our parents are moving to a lovely new home. I can't help but be reminded of the words of Anne Frank, "Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart." I have seen this these few weeks and feel blessed. Grace truly is found daily.

Home

"Home is where the heart is," "Home sweet home," "There is no place like home." These are all familiar sayings that praise the value of home. I have found as I have gotten older I seem to enjoy being home more and more. To be honest I've always been a homebody of sorts, but when I worked full time and my daughter was younger we seemed to spend more time out taking care of the business of life. Now I spend most of my time at home. Things like laundry, menu planning, monthly budgets, organizing, decorating, and general maintenance are not so overwhelming. There is plenty of time to read, catch up on my favorite tv shows, snuggle with my cat, scrapbook, knit, study theology, and compose entries for this blog. Of course, getting out and experiencing new adventures are good for the soul as well. I'm glad I can do both.

Outer Order

"Outer order contributes to inner calm," is one of  Gretchen Rubin's Secrets of Adulthood. Gretchen is the author of The Happiness Project and a blogger I have followed for many years. I have found these words to ring true often in my lifetime. When I begin to feel frazzled and overwhelmed, it is usually true that the physical environment around me is starting to pile up as well. Taking the time to make my bed, go through the junk mail, or even just pick up the many toys Cooper, my poodle, has strewn around the house starts to put me back in a calmer state. I've been really busy these last few weeks and found myself quite overwhelmed. Needless to say, things were becoming more and more cluttered around here. Thank goodness for a snow day that allowed me to start straightening up. Little by little as everything was put back in place I found a sense of inner calm. I know that everyone is different in how they handle the pressures of life, but you may want to consider this as a way to bring calm back into your world.

The List

In the summer of 1974, right after I graduated from high school, I made a list. I remember feeling very contemplative that summer as I questioned what my future would be. I knew that someday I wanted to be married and have a family. I thought I wanted to be a high school drama teacher. Not so much because I felt a strong desire to teach, but more because my mom had told me that I should always have a way to support myself. As I thought about my future, I made a bucket list of sorts. These were all things that at eighteen years old I thought would be important to accomplish. I have yet to travel through Europe, but I do see that in the near future. Although, I am not a free-lance photographer I am a pretty good amateur photographer. I was quite pleased with the photo I took of my daughter and son-in-law for their Christmas card. I've never danced in a musical variety show, but I've considered dusting off the old tap shoes- well actually new tap shoes. I remember really enjoying my tap dancing days during my childhood. I've never formally taken an art history class, but I did begin an independent study of art one summer. I actually did play the guitar that summer. I learned to strum a few chords on my brother's guitar as I sang my favorite John Denver tunes.  I took tennis lessons several semesters in college, and although I never considered myself to be accomplished, I did enjoy playing. I've never written a novel, and I'm not sure I have it in me, but I am writing this blog. It's just that back in 1974 we had no idea what a blog was. I've written a children's story, but it remains filed away. Perhaps, I should take it out and give it a second chance. I've worked a little with water colors, but nothing that involved. As a classroom teacher I had several opportunities to write and direct classroom productions. The drama teacher in me remained. I have traveled quite a bit through the good old USA, but not in a camper. However, a small travel trailer is looking pretty certain in my future. I've been to Colorado, former home of John Denver, twice and loved it both times. I have developed my own personal library over the years, and hope to have some built in shelves at my next home to show it off. As a huge Nancy Drew fan I would love to have solved a real mystery. I did however use my detective skills to locate the address of the woman who failed to register the truck she purchased from us in her own name. Although, I took Spanish in high school I cannot say that I am proficient in speaking it. However, in my attempts to give my brain a good workout, I am considering picking up Spanish again. 

As I've looked over the last forty years I can honestly say that I've done most everything on the list in one form or fashion. The interesting thing is that I didn't pull it out regularly and check it over the years. It all kind of fell in place. Pretty cool!

Irish Cousins

Something really exciting happened yesterday. I was able to connect with two of my cousins on my Mom's side of the family.  The really cool thing is that they live in England! My grandmother came to America when she was in her early twenties to marry my grandfather, and we never had the opportunity to meet any of her relatives. Through the miracle of technology I was able to reach out to one cousin whose grandfather was my grandmother's brother and another who my grandmother was her grandmother's aunt. Although, the family settled in Liverpool, England they were actually from Ireland. I'm looking forward to learning more about my Irish cousins.

The Rocking H

This is one of my favorite photos from our time raising cattle. What an experience for a city girl who was basically afraid of cows. Before it was all said and done though, I got pretty good at herding them in and out of our front yard. One of the things I particularly loved were the calves. As much as you wish you could get close enough to love on them, that really never happened. That's why this photo is so special.The chances of a calf standing this still with her protective mother standing by allowing someone to touch her is rare. 

One of the other thing I learned about calves is that the group of babies are usually left with one
mama cow as a babysitter while the rest of the herd grazes. In our case the oldest female Nana
was usually the one tasked with this responsibility.  Once though, my husband spent a week at our farm building a cross fence. I got a call from him letting me know that all the cows had left to make their rounds along the pasture and all the babies had been left with him. Apparently, Nana had gotten a reprieve that day and my husband was pinch hitting as the babysitter!

Art Journaling

One of the fun things I like to do is art journaling. This is a way to combine different materials to produce a piece of art. This particular page includes a cat that I drew when I was seven, a really cool photo of three very similar cats that I took when we lived in Celina, another photo of a lion from the New Orleans Zoo, a funny little cat cartoon and a quotation about cats. Combining these together along with scrapbook paper and other embellishments creates a fun commentary on cats. The examples below also include my name written in cursive from second grade, and an elephant that I drew in second grade as well. I enjoy using things I have collected to express myself through art.

Knitting

Knitting, or as I like to think of it; learning something new. When we are children basically everything we learn is something new. We do it quite naturally, and don't really give too much notice to our mistakes.  Learning to ride a bike inevitably ends up with a few scrapes and bruises, but we do it any way. Somewhere along the way we start becoming more selective about what we learn. If it falls in the comfort zone of what we already know then we might pursue it. However, if it is hard, unnatural or uncomfortable we probably shy away from it. Mistakes and failures are to be avoided at all costs. That's why knitting is important to me. You see, I just learned how to knit a few months ago. It was unfamiliar, hard, uncomfortable and I really wanted to quit because I wasn't very good. I kept having to remind myself  that I had faced the same thing when I learned to crochet a few years back. So I stuck with it, and slowly each day continued on. Eventually, I started to pick up speed and a rhythm. I started noticing how it was suppose to look, and found myself enjoying the motion of it. I adjusted along the way and purchased some bamboo needles which did not slip like the metal ones. Now I can honestly say that I know how to knit. My next step will be to actually follow a pattern and make something. My lesson learned here is to not be so hesitant to try something new. To not be sidetracked by failure and mistakes. I really love knitting and am sad to think of what I would have missed out on if I had not tried. To quote Shakespeare, " Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt."

Thimbles

I collect thimbles. I have been collecting them for around thirty years now. I actually had a few before I made a conscious effort to start collecting them. Each place I visit I try to find a thimble or two to bring home as a souvenir.  The really nice things about thimbles are that they are small, affordable, come in a variety of designs, are easily displayed in a small area, and they bring back memories of places I have been. My family all know that we have to check for a thimble before we leave the gift shop. It really has been a fun hobby and I keep them all in an old printer's tray turned on its end. It is hanging on the wall at the top of the stairs, and every time I pass by it I am reminded of the many places I have visited over the years. I have found in life that often times it is the small things that bring you the most joy.

Abby

Why do cats want to be right in the middle of things?  This is Abby, my ten year old cat who actually started out as my daughter's kitten. Unfortunately, fifteen year old teenage girls don't have much time to spend with kittens, so Abby basically became mine. I've been taking a class through iTunes U (which has actually been quite awesome) and Abby likes to join me when I'm working at my desk.  Now I really don't mind this and enjoy getting to spend time with her. However, I spend the majority of my time pushing her off my notebook paper and battling her for my pen. Ironically, she has sat quite properly while I have composed this post. Go figure!

False Choices

Something I've recently considered is the idea of false choices.  I think so often in life we are quick to think that we only have one choice or another when it comes to a situation. Because of that, I think we remain paralyzed in determining which choice is the right or best choice of the two. However, this idea of only one or the other is often times false. We actually have many other choices in between.  I have begun challenging myself to look at life this way in many of the small ordinary decisions I make each day.  I have found that in doing so it has pushed me to be more creative and resourceful. I do think it is important to not allow false choices to limit ourselves and our accomplishments. I encourage you to consider doing so as well.

Peach Crisp

When I was around thirteen years old I had the opportunity to take cooking lessons from the electric company. It is one of my fondest young teen memories, and I remember looking forward to it all week. Back in the early 70's going to downtown Dallas was a big deal. I would give a lot of thought to what I would wear, because back then people dressed up to go downtown. Along with learning how to make pigs in a blanket, I learned how to make peach crisp. This is really a very simple, but tasty dessert, especially when served with some Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream.

What makes this recipe even more special to me is I still have my original copy written in my neat thirteen year old script. I hope you give it a try.

Books

Books. I fell in love with books in third grade. I remember walking home from school reading The Hundred Dresses. I just couldn't put it down.  I needed to know how it ended.  It was during this time that my Dad took me to the library for the first time. I remember the librarian recommending Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, but I don't remember actually reading it.

It wasn't until fourth grade that I met Nancy Drew in a literary sense of the word. I couldn't read the series fast enough. I loved Nancy. I loved her bravery, her intelligence, her cool car and her cute boyfriend Ned. I so wanted to be Nancy until the day I realized a few years later that I was kind of a chicken at heart. It was a sad day when the reality hit me that I would never be Nancy.

But my love for reading had been ignited. I read biographies, historical fiction,teen romances, Steven King novels, racy adult romances, and a host of self-help books along the way.  In fact there was a book that I checked out from the Hampton-Illinois library at least a dozen times during my early teen years. It was called A New You.  I faithfully read it time and time again hoping that some miracle transformation might take place.

My love of books spread to my love of libraries and later book stores. As a beginner driver my Dad used to let me drive to the library every Saturday. Without fail, every time I left the parking lot and took a right turn onto Illinois Ave.I would run over the curb. I remember returning to that library years later hoping to to find my old favorite, but it was no longer on the shelves. I guess I must have helped wear it out.